How the 'Jesus' Wife' Hoax Fell Apart

The media loved the 2012 tale from Harvard Divinity School.

By

Jerry Pattengale

May 1, 2014 7:17 p.m. ET

In September 2012, Harvard Divinity School professor Karen King announced the discovery of a Coptic (ancient Egyptian) gospel text on a papyrus fragment that contained the phrase "Jesus said to them, 'My wife . . .' " The world took notice. The possibility that Jesus was married would prompt a radical reconsideration of the New Testament and biblical scholarship.

Yet now it appears almost certain that the Jesus-was-married story line was divorced from reality. On April 24, Christian Askeland—a Coptic specialist...